1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing system, an image processing method, and a storage medium which stores a program for performing the image processing method, and, more particularly, to an image processing system which can easily perform reading by using a scan ticket, an image processing method which is applicable to the image processing system, and a storage medium which stores a program for performing the image processing method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, in many companies, paper documents have been often digitized by an image processing apparatus. Further, since the image processing apparatus has been upgraded, various scan settings have been able to be performed in case of such digitizing.
In case of the digitizing, a scan condition must be set before actual scanning. Particularly, in a case where the documents of a same kind are scanned, although the settings for the documents to be scanned are all the same, such the same scan setting must be repetitively performed whenever the scanning is performed. Thus, there are problems of complicated operations and occurrence of setting errors.
Therefore, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-270148 discloses a mechanism of causing a server to obtain a job template on which a scan condition has been described, and thus improving efficiency of a scan using the scan condition described on the obtained job template.
The mechanism disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-270148 is merely to improve efficiency of the scan by using the job template (scan ticket). In this mechanism, the scan condition and a transfer destination are described in the scan ticket so as to transfer a scanned image using the job template (scan ticket). Incidentally, it is conceivable that the transfer destination includes information such as an image transfer destination, an image transfer destination path, an image file transfer protocol and the like.
In a procedure of transferring an image file, access to a server is generally restricted. Therefore, in case of storing the image file in the server, it is general to access a directory or the file after conducting authentication with input of a user name, a password and the like. Moreover, an authentication specification has been formulated also for a general file transfer protocol such as an FTP (File Transfer Protocol), an SMB (Server Message Block) or the like.
Therefore, when an image read using the scan ticket is transferred, authentication information such as the user name, the password and the like is necessary to access the image transfer destination.
There is a problem that, when the authentication information has previously been set in the scan ticket, a risk of a leak of the authentication information increases. The scan ticket is generally stored in the server, and an image processing apparatus and the server mutually exchange the scan ticket through a network. For example, in a case where the scan ticket is managed or controlled for each user, since the user obtains a scan ticket list from the server whenever the user logs in the image processing apparatus, the authentication information resultingly flows on the network whenever the user logs in the image processing apparatus. Further, if it is assumed that a server is provided on a network on an outside of company such as a cloud computing environment typified by an SaaS (Software as a Service), the authentication information resultingly flows on the network on the outside of company, whereby the risk of the leak of the authentication information increases more and more.
For this reason, it is conceivable to adopt a method of causing, without setting the authentication information to the scan ticket previously generated, a user to input the authentication information whenever an image actually read is transferred.
However, there is a case where the scan ticket is used to instruct a scan to anyone else. In such an operation, there is a problem that it is impossible to cause someone else to input the authentication information each time. For example, it is assumed a case where a boss issues an overtime work order to a subordinate in a company. In this case, the boss prints out and gives a written overtime work order to the subordinate, and the subordinate puts his/her signature and affixes his/her seal to the written overtime work order and transmits it to the boss using the scan ticket. In such an operation, in case of generating the scan ticket, the boss sets in advance the authentication information to the scan ticket so that the subordinate accesses the directory managed by the boss and transmits the read image to the relevant directory on the authority of the boss. Here, in case of adopting the method of causing the user to input the authentication information whenever transferring the image as described above, the subordinate cannot access the directory as long as the subordinate does not know the authentication information of the boss, whereby it is difficult for the subordinate to transmit the read image.